weekly 2024-03-11

MoonBit Update

1. moonbitlang/core is now open-source at https://github.com/moonbitlang/core. We are thrilled to receive positive feedback from the community. To learn more about the moonbitlang/core open source details, click here: https://www.moonbitlang.com/blog/moonbitlang-core-opensource

2. MoonBit now supports labeled argument and optional argument. Labelled arguments are useful for distinguishing different parameters of the same type in a function:

   fn greeting(~name: String, ~location: String) {
     println("Hi, \(name) from \(location)!")
   }
   
   fn init {
     greeting(~name="somebody", ~location="some city")
     let name = "someone else"
     let location = "another city"
     // `~label=label` can be abbreviated as `~label`
     greeting(~name, ~location)
   }
   

   Optional arguments must be labelled, and you must specify a default value when declaring an optional parameter. When the function is called, if no argument is explicitly provided, the default value will be used. Note: the default value expression will be evaluated on every function call:

   fn greeting(~name: String, ~location: Option[String] = None) {
     match location {
       Some(location) => println("Hi, \(name)!")
       None => println("Hi, \(name) from \(location)!")
     }
   }
   
   fn init {
     greeting(~name="A") // Hi, A!
     greeting(~name="B", ~location=Some("X") // Hi, B from X!
   }
   

3. A new builtin type SourceLoc is added, representing source code location. If a function declares an optional parameter of type SourceLoc with _ as default value, MoonBit will automatically inject the location of call site when calling this function:

   fn f(~loc : SourceLoc = _) {
     println("called at \(loc)")
   }
   
   fn g(~loc : SourceLoc = _) {
     f() // show the position inside `g`
     f(~loc) // autofilled arguments can be manually overidden:
             // this call should show the location of the caller of `g`
   }
   
   test "source loc" {
     g()
   }
   

   Paste the above code into a new file called test.mbt at try.moonbitlang.com, and run the test "source loc", you should see the following output:

   test source loc ...
   called at memfs:/sample-folder/test.mbt:6:3-6:6
   called at memfs:/sample-folder/test.mbt:11:3-11:6
   

   SourceLoc can be used to write test utilities, providing handful location information when tests fail:

   fn assert_eq[X: Eq + Show](result: X, expect: X, ~loc : SourceLoc = _) -> Result[Unit, String] {
     if (result == expect) {
       Ok(())
     } else {
       Err("\(loc): Assertion failed: \(result) != \(expect)")
     }
   }
   
   test "1 =? 2" {
     assert_eq(1, 2)?
   }
   

   running 1 tests
   test 1 =? 2 ... FAILED memfs:/sample-folder/test.mbt:10:3-10:18: Assertion failed: 1 != 2
   
   test result: 0 passed; 1 failed
   

4. === has been deprecated; please use physical_equal as its replacement.

5. A new builtin type UnsafeMaybeUninit[T] and a few related builtin primitives have been added to support implementing high performance data structures, like vectors, in the MoonBit Core. Because they are unsafe, regular MoonBit programs are not expected to use them.

IDE Updates

1. The online IDE now supports running tests via CodeLens.

2. Significantly improved how moonfmt handles source code with comments.

3. Enhanced stability and user experience for the IDE and VSCode plugin.

   a. The VSCode plugin now invokes moon check on file changes rather than starting moon check -w.

   b. Improved the typing experience for multi-line strings and docstrings. Now, inserting a line break inside a multi-line string/docstring automatically prefixes it with #| or ///.

   c. Fixed issues with hover, errors in moon.pkg.json, empty files, etc., that caused lsp errors.

Build System Update

Fixed several issues with moonbuild.

a. Fixed an issue where moon upgrade failed on Windows.

b. Fixed an issue where moon add did not remove the old version when adding a new version.

c. Fixed an issue where moon check could fail locally but still allow publishing.

Toolchain Update

Markdown linter now supports expr tags.

```moonbit expr
1 * 2 + 3
```

You can see the corresponding output when running mdlint:

5